Word processing and computer code development sometimes require locating text somewhere in one or more documents. There are unique challenges to performing a search on a computer as compared with searching a physical document such as a printed book. For example, a reader may be able to remember that a particular passage appeared about half-way through the book and flip to the approximate location of the passage. However, documents in a computer are more difficult to spatially visualize in this manner. Further, when a search is performed across several files, it may be difficult to visualize the files being searched on a computer.
In some instances, searches can be more complex. For example, a user may not know the exact or required syntax of a search expression. Also, a user may perform a sequence of searches. For instance, a user may perform a first search followed by a second search based on the first one. However, performing a sequence of searches may have limited efficacy, especially when a large number of search results is returned each time. Conventional techniques for performing these types of searches are based on using search patterns with wildcards, which is a sequence of characters that define a search pattern. The search pattern is then used for pattern-matching in a body of text being searched. Conventional search techniques also allow a user to perform separate searches, with each search generating an independent results list. Thus, the inventors perceived a need in the art to make searching a document on a computer simpler and more efficient, including a need to link the independent results so that a user can more quickly find a search result.